


Dimension 52

by TheSassyMarquess



Category: Adventure Time, Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Crossover, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-06-06 12:35:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6754018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSassyMarquess/pseuds/TheSassyMarquess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of Stanford Pines, a man adrift in an interdimensional struggle to get home. He's going to go to many strange places, meet new and sometimes unusual allies, enemies, and people that just don't fit into either. Find out just what Ford did for those 30 years behind the portal. (May contain background shipping, while shipping isn't at the heart of this fic, no ships are sunk or focused on currently. Mainly focuses on Platonic friendships, though it's open to interpretation.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stanford Pines

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This story is primarily designed as a story of Ford during his dimensional travels. It features him crossing over to other universes with those being the following (In no order whatsoever): Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, and Steven Universe. This list will probably expand, and might involve travel to AU’s.  
> Author’s notes:  
> This story takes place directly after Stanley and Stanford’s fight in 1982, where Ford is pushed through the portal. So as such, the story starts as Ford gets pulled through. Thank you for reading.

“STANLEY DO SOMETHING!”

These are going to be my last words, Ford thought as he was pulled into the portal. In his blind panic, he’d thrown Journal 1 at his brother in a vain attempt to get help. Stanford closed his eyes and braced for the horrors of the nightmare realm.

* * *

It was pitch black, and Ford couldn’t hear a thing. “Is this what death feels like?”

The only thing Ford heard was his own question. Then he realized his eyes were shut. As he opened them a rather non-nightmare realm looked back at him. He was standing in a lightly wooded forest more or less alone.

“Wait I thought the portal was linked to the nightmare realm. Unless…”

Ford’s brain immediately snapped back to the fight with his brother. When he and Stanley had been fighting they must have not only activated the portal, they must have also damaged it, changing the destination from the nightmare realm to … well wherever he was. He’d need to take a closer look at his surroundings to figure out where he was and if there was any immediate danger. The flora and fauna he saw was fairly familiar. This could possibly be earth, but these weren’t the pine trees and redwoods of Gravity Falls. Still, it was vaguely North American. In fact he wasn’t even sure if some of these plants were native to his dimension. Regardless of where he was now though, he wouldn’t last long unless he could find some shelter. Then maybe he could think up a way to get out of here. Or perhaps Stanley might reactivate the portal. Though if Stanley reactivated the Portal, he’d be even angrier at him than he already was for putting him in this mess.

* * *

It’d been three days already. Ford had created himself a decent shelter and managed to find some edible food nearby. He’d been fairly lucky in that this dimension he’d crashed into had been very similar to his own, and assuming the stars and climate here were similar enough too, he was somewhere on the eastern side of the North America in the early spring. Ford had been waiting to see if a portal opened up somewhere nearby in the event that his brother attempted to rescue him. His daily routine was to get up and explore the surrounding area for survival resources as well as a possible portal back home. He repeated this day after day, noting a mark in a new journal he’d started with. He’d made an estimate of the time of a day on this planet, and indeed, it seemed to be an earth, having a 24-hour cycle.

* * *

Ford had been waiting around his little shelter at this point for five weeks now. He’d come to the conclusion that if Stanley hadn’t tried to rescue him by now, that his brother would have just given up. So Ford grabbed the survival gear he’d made and headed east in the hope of finding some form of civilization. After all this is Earth, in a period in which very familiar life existed as well.

* * *

After two weeks of searching and walking, Ford stumbled into a small town in what he discovered was more-or-less Virginia. Of course the native inhabitants called their state a different name, but Ford just called it Virginia-1. The town was fairly similar in size to the Gravity Falls that Ford had left and seemed just like any other southeastern town he’d visited. He mainly kept to himself, as he attempted to integrate himself into the town life and possibly find a place to stay. After a few cultural disputes and such Ford just stuck to the junkyard. Ford had found that he’d actually preferred being an outcast here, since it gave him more time for writing. He’d also been searching through the different piles of junk for anything he could use to cobble together a device to track dimensional anomalies, which could help him to get home. Ford soon succeeded, having used some wiring, electronics, and some of his own parts and such that had come through the portal with him.

It’d been about four months since Ford had initially found himself stranded here, and now he had what he believed to be a way out. He was finally ready to leave Dimension 1 and come home. He set off, and after another two weeks of searching he found himself face to face with a dimensional rift. Well, there was only one thing to do now. Ford took a breath and stepped through.


	2. Princess Bubblegum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the story really begins to take shape, the first chapter is there more to set up these later chapters.

Another unexpected terrain… just as he’d predicted. Ford took a cursory glance around. At this point he was at dimension 4, and he still felt no closer to home. In fact, Ford felt like he’d managed to get further away this time. He stood in a forest full of white trees with pink leaves. Though the leaves were more similar to cotton in texture.  
Ford scowled at his bad luck. At this point it seemed that with each random jump he made, he only got further and further away from home. He checked his log that he’d been recording the days on. “What! I’ve been gone for an entire YEAR now!”  


Thinking back on this, it actually felt like he’d been gone for an even longer period of time than that. And yet despite all this time he spent wandering between dimensions, he was still hopelessly lost. “After all I’ve never seen any biology like this!”  


“And it’s been a long time since I’ve seen biology like yours.” A sweet bubbly voice responded.  


Ford turned around, he’d figured that he was alone initially, but he’d been so wrapped up in thought that he hadn’t noticed a figure approach him from behind. She was about Ford’s height level, and dressed entirely in pink. In fact she was entirely pink, excluding a golden crown with a bluish spherical gem sitting on her head. She looked fairly regal, with a long fancy pink dress, and long pink hair. If Ford had to guess her age, he’d say somewhere around her early twenties. She seemed to radiate kindness, however Ford knew that appearances could be deceiving. After all, he’d learned that the hard way recently.  


“So will you tell me who you are?” She was pointing some kind of scanner at him, or at least that’s what he assumed it was.  


“I’m just a traveler who’s a bit lost at the moment.”  


“Oh, really?” She said with an icy tone. “Where are you from?”  


“Oh it’s a bit far away from here, I doubt you’ve heard of it.”  


“Yeah, I don’t think you’re from Ooo, or anywhere nearby.”  


Ford didn’t know where this Ooo was, so he felt even more lost than before. He was positive that this lady didn’t trust him, and knew that this wouldn’t end well unless he could turn it around quickly. What was there to talk about that he could use as a diversion. He could ask about the trees, though that might not work, she seemed suspicious about him for his earlier comments. He could try asking about why she is pink, though that might be offensive. Or he could try asking about that device in her ha-  


“Are you a human?”  


Well that one cut him a quite off guard. Is this one of those dimensions where the sentient lifeforms EAT humans?! This could go real south real fast if it was. Then again, if it was she’d probably already have captured him. He supposed in this situation he could tell the truth without having to worry, at least not quite as much.  


“Yes, I’m a human, and my name is Stanford Pines.”  


“Greetings Stanford, I am Princess Bubblegum, ruler of the Candy Kingdom. Where do you come from?” Her tone had calmed down for a moment. However, when she asked where he was from the force was back in her voice.  


So she was a princess? That would fit with her attire. He wondered if bubblegum was just a surname, if she was actually made of bubblegum, or both. After all, for all he knew these trees could be made of cotton candy. With a name like the Candy Kingdom, that was a fairly valid assumption to make.  


Ford was pretty sure that Princess Bubblegum wouldn’t exactly know where he’s from. He’d have to dodge the question somehow.  


“As I’m sure you know, I’m not from around here. So out of curiosity, are humans exceedingly rare around here?”  


“Well yes, actually. You’re the first human I’ve seen in a long time. I thought that they’d gone extinct.”  


“WHAT! REALLY!”  


Despite Ford’s shock, he quickly realized that after all his traveling, he’d be bound to hit some kind of world without humans. He just didn’t expect to hit one where they’d died out only recently. He recovered fairly quickly, and followed up with another question.  


“So what’s that thing you’re holding?”  


She looked down at the device in her hands and then back at him. “Well it’s kind of a weirdness detector. Or at least that’s what I like to call it.”  


Well that explained how she managed to find him. He must be setting that thing off like crazy. Of course the study of weirdness and other such similar sciences was Ford’s specialty.  


“Oh well, how does it work? Does it detect residual traces of abnormal tachyon frequencies or spacetime ripples?”  


From what Ford could tell he’d accomplished his goal of throwing her off her investigative trail. She hopefully wouldn’t push for any more information about where he was from until he was sure she either wouldn’t think he was crazy, or he knew that he could trust her.  


“No, no, it actually works off of a fairly advanced simulation of realistic behavior using some complex equations I wrote and compares whether or not the simulation and the real world match.”  


Ford could tell that he’d be able to have quite the interesting conversation with this woman.  


“Why don’t you try using…”  


* * *

“So you’re from another dimension?” Princess Bubblegum inquired.  


They’d left the forest a while ago and were now sitting up in Bubblegum’s lab discussing Ford’s situation over cups of tea.  


“Yes, and I’ve been trying to find my way home ever since. Do you know of any possible ways I could possibly try getting back to my dimension? I’d rather not hop randomly around on the offchance I end up in too hostile of a dimension.”  


“Would you know how to find your dimension if we could open up a link? I know that in the land of Ooo there exist many powerful objects capable of opening a portal, but they all tend to be one-way.”  


Ugh. Of course he can’t just take the simple way. They can potentially control where they open the portal too, but they can’t actually find which one is his.  


“Sadly, no. I don’t know which dimension is mine so I’d just be back to square one.”  


“Fortunately I’ve got a plan B. You see there’s a special dimensional room known as Prismo’s time room. Anyone who enters there can make a single wish. Of course be warned that his wishes all come with some form of twist or something so be very careful of what you wish for. I’m sure he’ll explain it to you if you just ask nicely.”  


“Okay, so all I need to do is to properly phrase a wish to get back to my home dimension, and he’ll do it?”  


“Yep. He’ll take care of the rest for you.”  


“The challenge now is, how are we going to get there?”  


“Leave that to me, I’ve got an idea of where an artifact is that can get you there.”  


* * *

“When you said it was in a dungeon I thought it meant one of the ones in YOUR castle, NOT someone else’s rotting booby-trapped nightmare!” Ford yelled as he ducked beneath a swinging sword. He and Bubblegum had entered a dungeon hidden in a slightly less sweet forest nearby. He’d entered with pretty much just a stick in his hands, and she’d walked in with some kind of duffel bag. They’d been traveling deeper and deeper into the dungeon when they’d run into yet another group of walking skeletons. These ones had been guarding a hallway leading to a flight of stairs. Bubblegum had already defeated two of the three skeletons and Ford had been distracting the last one while she reloaded. She got in a blast with what she referred to as her “Ball-Blam-Burglerber.” Honestly Ford had no idea what the real name of it was, but he understood that it was basically some kind of grenade launcher. Whatever it was he ducked out of the way as the ball exploded.  


“Can you give me a warning when you’re about to fire that thing in my direction!?”  


“Sorry about that. Here take this, it’ll make it easier on both of us if we’re equally armed.”  


Ford picked up the weapon she’d tossed to him. It seemed to be some kind of gun but there was a plasma globe right where the barrel would normally be. He picked it up and followed her down the stairs to a new room in the dungeon. They came into a stone lined chamber that was seemingly empty except for a set of locked double doors sitting across the chamber from them. Bubblegum immediately set to work picking the lock.  


“What exactly does this do?”  


“It’s my electrode gun. I cranked up the charge, it should be able to fry what’s left of those skeletons.”  


“Okay, and what about that artifact that we came here for?”  


“The Traveler’s Stone? What about it?”  


“How does it work?”  


“I think you just pick it up or something. I’ve never used it before.”  


“Well, I –“  


Ford was cut off by the click of the lock. Princess Bubblegum pushed the doors open and in front of them stood about twenty skeletons. Bubblegum whipped out her Ball Blam Whatever, Ford pulled out his weapon and the two of them opened fire. They took down most of the initial skeletons and the few stragglers left behind were either finished off in hand-to-hand against Bubblegum or blasted by Ford.  


“Whew- I really wish I knew how to fight like that. Might be useful if I can’t get home right away.” Even if he does then it still might be useful Ford thought. After all he could give his brother a nice right hook for what he did.  


“I could teach you if you really wanted to learn. After all we have the Traveler’s Stone now, and we’ve got plenty of time on our hands.”  


“I suppose I don’t have to leave quite yet.”  


Princess Bubblegum hefted up the stone and threw it in her duffel bag.  


“In that case, let’s head back to my castle. I can give you some basic combat training along with some practice with my other weapons. Perhaps you can even design something of your own.”  


As he walked out of the dungeon and back to the castle he had a chance to appreciate that for once in this entire ordeal he’d had a bit of good fortune.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I'd like to thank Iceguppie, and Lxilani for their help and inspiration. As well as anyone who has read it this far.  
> Also a much more casual shout out to Bumi for helping with the chapter name system, thanks!  
> Also I found out fixing the formatting on here is kinda a bitch.  
> In addition the chapters go up a day earlier on my tumblr at: http://thesassymarquess.tumblr.com/


	3. Prismo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay on this one, I got a little busy and lost the time to work on this. Which is a shame since this was one of my favorite chapters to write so far (one of the upcoming ones has also been rather fun too). This chapter includes some of my favorite lines in it as well. Just as a note, I upload all chapters 1-2 days earlier on my Tumblr at http://thesassymarquess.tumblr.com/

It had been a couple of months since Ford had initially landed in Ooo, Six months to be precise. His records of how long he’d been lost were kept as accurate as possible. He’d had time to meet some of the other denizens including Princess Bubblegum’s friend, Marceline the Vampire Queen. She’d visited for a bit of a prank, namely moving Bubblegum’s bed halfway across Ooo. There was the Ice King, apparently an old senile wizard who came into Bubblegum’s castle with the intent to kidnap her. Ford fought the Ice King back, knocking off the crown that was seemingly the source of his powers (Afterwards the Ice King left sulking over the fact that Princess Bubblegum apparently had a new ‘boyfriend’, a statement that left Ford quite confused for the longest amount of time.) He even ran into a pair of talking dogs named Joshua and Margret who seemed to be paranormal investigators like himself. Ford spent most of his time either training or working alongside Bubblegum on one of her recent projects, some kind of defense robot named RATTLEBALLS.

Recently he’d come to the conclusion that he wasn’t really needed in Ooo anymore, and he had more or less finished his hand-to-hand combat lessons he’d been taking. There was also the rather unnerving issue of the candy citizens that kept calling him Billy for some strange reason. So Ford grabbed his things, including several devices he and Bubblegum had built and some food for his journey ahead. It was time for him to discuss with Bubblegum his departure from this dimension.

“Hey Peppermint Butler, where’s Princess Bubblegum?”

“She’s in her Lab currently. Do you need me to get her?”

“No, that’ll be fine, I need to talk to her myself. Thank you Peppermint Butler.”

Ford found Princess Bubblegum sitting at her lab working furiously on an invention. “Hello Princess Bubblegum.” Bubblegum silently continued to work on her invention, not really acknowledging Ford’s presence. She put down a soldering iron and picked up a screw driver sealing the case on a piece of electronics. At this point she looked up and noticed Ford’s presence.

“Hey Ford, what’s up.”

“I’m ready to go home now.”

“I understand. I figured this day was coming.” Her tone sounded off to Ford. This wasn’t her typical cheery, bubbly attitude she had.

She grabbed her device off the table, revealing a second one sitting across from it. She gave a push to her desk causing her chair to slide across the room to the Traveler’s Stone. She picked it up on the way past, smoothly exited the chair, and walked over.

“So from what I learned of the it, all you have to do it is hold it and concentrate on your destination.”

“Really? It’s that simple?”

“Yup. But before you go, take this.” She held out the little device in her hand.

“It’s an interdimensional communicator. It’s a pretty basic prototype, but it gets the job done. I’ve got another one on my desk.”

“So how does it send messages back and forth? Is it a full digital interface? I’d say my experience with these is a little behind your tech.”

“The interface is only partially digital, it just sends a physical letter through it. It’s got this dimensions address already programmed into it. All you have to do is give it something to send.”

“Any restrictions to it?”

“For one thing, anything sent has to be less than five inches wide and less than one inch thick.”

Ford looked into the sole slot on the device and noted it matched the measurements given.

“I’ll also need you to send me your current dimensional ID every time you hop to a new dimension, otherwise I won’t be able to reply.”

“Sounds pretty useful if I can get the hang of it. How do I interact with it if I need to change the settings or something? Also can it send anything that fits in it?”

“You can send anything that isn’t alive. I simply think the results would not be pretty. Other than that, size is the only factor.”

“Have you tested it yet?”

“Give me a second.”

She walked back to her desk, grabbed a folded up letter, and inserted it into her device. It continued inside the device on it’s own. After a second, the letter was gone and Ford’s device beeped out a “You’ve got D-mail.”

“Okay so now you push the button here.”

As he did so, the letter emerged from the slot in his device. It read “DMD: Dimensional Mailing Device Instructional Manual.”

“Let’s do a quick test to see if yours can send properly.”

After more than enough tests of Princess Bubblegum’s invention that may have been an excuse to spend just a bit more time together they grabbed the stone and left the lab.

“If my understanding of the Traveler’s Stone is correct being on top of the castle will be the safest location to avoid mishaps.”

A faint breeze blew by as the two of them looked down on the Candy Kingdom. The time to say goodbye had finally come. Princess Bubblegum started to hand the Stone to Ford, but after a moment’s hesitation she set the stone aside to give Ford a well-deserved hug. Though it felt awkward and unexpected on his end Ford reciprocated the hug.

“I’ll miss you.” She whispered to him.

Ford’s face turned a shade of pink brighter than Bubblegum’s hair. He picked up the stone and a second later it floated out of his hand. After shifting into a vertical ring a glowing portal appeared inside it.

“Goodbye Princess Bubblegum.”

“Call me Bonnie.”

“Goodbye Bonnie.”

With that, Ford stepped through the portal.

* * *

“‘Aw Balls’? What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Man, this is only the second time this has happened. Though it’s kinda weird it’s happened twice man.”

Stanford Pines stood in the middle of Prismo’s time room, with the only other object in the room being a little waste basket with a miniature basketball hoop attached. The rest of Prismo’s room was a bright yellow, except for the pink of Prismo himself. Prismo looked to be nothing more than a shadow cast upon the entire room from a higher plane of existence. Honestly Ford wasn’t exactly sure what Prismo’s true form was, but odds were good he looked more impressive than his results did.

“Okay, explain to me why when I wish to be able to go back to my home dimension, a trash can appears.”

“Well, err… I’m not exactly sure why the waste basket appears. Perhaps your true home could be in the trash.”

Prismo didn’t seem to be very sure of what was going on, but he seemed to be attempting to lighten the mood judging by his tone. However the joke was as tasteless as one of Stanley’s used to be. It had been what 11 years or so since he’d last heard a joke from Stanley. Ford felt a kind of emptiness over this reflection, but he pushed down these feelings and tried to focus on the conversation.

Prismo looked at Ford noting Ford’s complete distaste towards the joke and resumed speaking. “Ok, I’m sorry, I guess that wasn’t that funny. Look I can try to explain as much as I can, but it might be a little long. You shouldn’t need to worry too much though, since it won’t take any time in any other dimensions, which is why it’s called my time room.”

Prismo took in a deep breath and began: “So as you are well aware, there are many different dimensions and timelines and universes in the multiverse, or multidimensional space, or whatever you want to call it. My powers are limited in that I can only alter certain dimensions that are within my domain. So if say someone from the Land of Ooo comes in and wishes that say the Lich never existed, I’d alter the universe for their wish, and insert them into their new Lich-free reality. Of course there can be plural universes for dimensions, so I only change or create the relevant universe. If someone comes in and wishes to go to another Dimension entirely, the new dimension needs to be within my circle of power for me to be able to get them there. Unfortunately yours is out of bounds. I don’t even know where you’re originally from. Theoretically you might never get back.”

“Well thanks for the hope.”

“I said theoretically. You do still have residual traces of your home dimension on you, so someone could track you by the trail you’ve been leaving as you journey around. In addition you might stumble back into your home dimension on accident. Future prediction is a nasty business Ford. You never know when something good or bad might happen. You can only guess the chances that it might happen.”

“What do I do now? I don’t even know how to leave this room.”

“Well all I said was that I couldn’t quite get you home, right?”

“Are you implying that you can get me closer to home?”

“Yep, I’ll even let it be on the house for you. That way you’ve still got one wish left.”

It looked like Ford wouldn’t be back as home as easily as he thought. At least a wish and a push in the right direction would be useful.

“So where will you send me exactly?”

“You followed a certain vector in the 4th dimensional plane. I believe that I can pinpoint it, and boom, I’ll send you right back in that direction. You’ll end up closer to where you left from, but that’s really the best I can do here.”

“Okay, So about that wish…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prep yourself for some feels and Angst next chapter. Whenever that comes out.


	4. Madame Mystery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ford finally makes it back to Gravity Falls. It feels good to be home right? This is home right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys about this one taking so long. It kinda went through a bit of development hell + writer's block. This was mostly written before the release of the journal and I have yet to obtain my own copy of it. So there might be bits that conflict with canon.

Despite Prismo warning he couldn’t bring Ford home, he had done it. Fortunately Ford had done so without the use of the Dimensional Portal. It’d been a year and a half since he’d been stranded, but at last, he was back in Gravity Falls.

It was one of those rainy summer days in a part of the woods he recognized as fairly close to his house. He could get back and resume his life where he’d left off. The first thing he intended to do was to disassemble that damn machine that’d sent him on this trip in the first place! After that, he’d give Stanley a piece of his mind, probably using his fist, since that seemed to get through to Stan.

Ford reached the clearing where he’d built his house, but something seemed off. There were a bunch of signs pointing to his house labeled “Welcome to the Murder Hut!” and “Admission only $20.” Some of the signs advertised a “Madame Mystery.” Ford also noticed several other new decorations outside his house, such as the beginning of a totem pole around his antenna, and numerous satellite dishes of his had been taken down too. Over the Back door was a sign labeled “Tours” and over the side entrance was “Gift Shop.” Ford stormed up to the front door and knocked on it urgently. He was fairly cross at this point, but he heard footsteps approaching the door. The door was swung open grandly by a woman in quite the unique sense of style. To put it simply, she was dressed in what looked to be a cross of business woman and like how mom used to dress. She was probably the one called “Madame Mystery” since she seemed to be going for some kind of psychic look.

Her looks however, were not the thing that surprised Ford, that was her reaction. Her eyes immediately lit up and she swept him up in one of the biggest hugs he’d ever seen. She’d managed to physically lift Ford off the ground and was swinging him around with her eyes squeezed tight against the tears rolling from her face. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed you Dipper,” she said.

The name filled Ford with instant dread for a simple reason. He wasn’t Dipper, and he didn’t even know who this Dipper person was. He didn’t know how to break it to her. As she opened her eyes and took another look at his face and it turned out he didn’t have to.

She instantly dropped him, and her bright and cheerful tone was suddenly icily cold when she spoke again. “You’re not Dipper. Who are you and where is my brother?”

Ford was struggling to put the pieces together and remained silent. The woman looked angrier than Ford had felt earlier. “WHAT AREN’T YOU TELLING ME? YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHERE HE IS!”

Ford looked so helpless as he just starred sadly at that woman who seemed to lose so much energy shouting at him. She was on the verge of tears.Her voice quavered as she asked him again. “Just give it to me straight, okay? I’m already lost without him.”

After a moments silence the woman’s emotions finally won over her. She leaned over a nearby counter and burst into tears. Ford could make out “I failed you again” and “I’m so sorry” from repetition alone. Whatever happened to her was obviously traumatic.

Ford was never good dealing with emotions, especially other people’s. He decided his best course of action would be to let her cry herself out, and then ask her what was wrong. After that perhaps he could see if she could help him out of this dimension.

* * *

It took a while for Madame Mystery to stop crying. After she finally stopped, she excused herself to the bathroom to wash off her face, and rejoined Ford in the kitchen. Her eyes where still red and puffy from crying. She did her best to smile as she sat at the table with him. It just wound up looking fake. “As long as you’re here, you’re my guest. You want anything to eat or drink maybe?”

“Just water would be fine. I think we have some more important things to talk about.”

Madame Mystery nodded her head and left the room. A moment later she returned with a glass of water for Ford, and what looked like a glass of apple juice for herself.

Ford begun, “So can you tell me your name, and who this ‘Dipper’ is?”

Madame Mystery nodded, “My name is Mabel Pines. Dipper’s my brother, my twin brother. ”

There were many things Ford expected to hear. but that was not one of them. From the look Mabel could see on his face, this was quite obviously not one of them.

“Sorry, it’s just that… my name is Stanford Pines, and I have a twin brother too.”

* * *

It had been an hour since he’d arrived. Ford and Mabel had reached some pretty similar conclusions about their universes. Some differences were irrelevant while other differences led to a few interesting revelations. The first Ford had was that judging by the shooting star design she had on Mabel seemed to be one of the symbols from Bill’s wheel. When Mabel handed him Dipper’s journal the silver pine tree with the carefully painted ‘1’ told a similar story. The similarities to him didn’t end there as apparently Dipper had fallen through his own portal, which meant he’d most likely made his own deal with Bill. The portals themselves might even be the same design. At this point Mabel and Ford had moved down to Dipper’s lab, the entrance cleverly hidden behind a vending machine by Mabel.

“So after your brother disappeared, what exactly did you do?” Ford asked.

“For the first couple of weeks I spent all my time down here as I tried to fix the portal. After a while I was forced to go out into town and they wound up noticing I looked similar to my brother. I put out the idea that he’d gone off into the woods to look for something and left the shack in my hands. A missing persons report went out, the case went cold about a year ago. They thought I might have been responsible for my brother’s disappearance, which meant sitting through quite a bit of investigating. Their final conclusion was I got too shaken up by the whole ordeal. I think there’s still reason to believe they’ll come back and arrest me. If it comes to that I don’t think Dipper will ever come back.”

She looked at Ford with tears in her eyes and continued, “I need to be there when he gets back! I need to tell him I’m sorry!”

Mabel had begun to cry again but she pulled herself together and asked Ford, “Can you fix the portal, please?”

Ford knew full well fixing the portal would be a bad idea, but she was so fragile he couldn’t just say no. A functional portal might also get him home. Should the world take priority, or two world-weary souls?

After a long pause, Ford looked at Mabel and said, “I’ll try my best.”

* * *

After taking a look at the portal and Dipper’s journal one large, terrible conclusion was clear. Dipper’s portal was very different from his own, and he’d have to have all of Dipper’s journals if he even wanted to have a hope of fixing it properly. Looking at the consoles there were circuits there that he had no idea why they’d be there in the first place! It was as if Dipper was given an entirely different set of schematics to build off of. Or maybe he just thought differently when it came to solving the problems that were inherent in Bill’s original design. The best he could do would be to jury-rig it and hope that it holds together for long enough to get Dipper here to fix it himself. Plus there was a significant risk of him creating an interdimensional rift if he did that.

Since Ford had moved out of the theoretical zone, Ford had learned a bit more about interdimensional physics in the past year and a half. Despite not being able to get it to full efficiency he could likely minimize the danger. He rewired as much of it as he understood and jury rigged a few new things. One component that might prevent a rift and another that would hopefully create a stable portal to Dipper through a link to his bio signature.

After three days he was ready to show his hard work to Mabel. He really hoped that this would work and bring back her brother. Then perhaps he could get home himself.

* * *

“So Ford, before we fire this thing up, I wanted to give you this.”

Mabel held in her hands a crimson red sweater.

“It’s a gift for all you’ve done for me. I know it won’t be enough, but thank you.”

Mabel gave Ford another hug as he wondered if these invasions of personal space were going to be a multidimensional trend. He flipped a few switches on the control panel as a steady hum emanated from the portal. Ford entered the portal room then called out, “Mabel, stay back and watch the controls for me, okay?”

“Okay Ford. WAIT THERE’S A WARNING LIGHT!”

The call came out too late though. The portal sent off a dangerous wave of energy, temporarily stopping gravity. Ford floated up and got a clear view of an electrical explosion from the control room along with the sickeningly familiar feeling of being dragged toward the portal. Ford screamed out in distress, “NO, NO, NO, NO!”

Gravity had seemingly recovered for Mabel, who was now running into the room with a rope. “I’m not letting this happen again!” she shouted while throwing an end of it to Ford.

He caught the rope and could feel Mabel trying to pull him back in. Sadly it was clear that if she kept at it she’d get pulled in herself. “Shut it down! Don’t worry about me! Stopping the portal from destroying the shack is more important!”

Mabel looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “No, I can still save you! The lever’s just a few steps back, I’ll shut it down, I can make it!”

Ford knew there wasn’t a chance of that happening. She probably knew too and simply wouldn’t admit it. “I’m going to let go, and you’re going to push that button, okay?”

“NO!”

“I’m letting go in 3!”

“PLEASE!”

“2!″

“DON’T!”

“1!″

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS!”

“0.″

With that Ford let go. Mabel fell far back and landed right next to the switch. He felt himself being sucked into the portal again. There was only one thing left for him to say. “I’m sorry.”

A moment later he was gone. Then the room became completely silent as Mabel shut down the portal.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys I want to be able to say "Chapter 5 will be ready soon!" but I can't. There's been some problems with it and I might end up cutting what I originally planned to follow this chapter with.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to put out some shout outs here, mainly to Iceguppie, who helped to proofread and edit this. Also a shout-out while I'm at it to GravitiJatuh also known as Lxilani on here at: http://archiveofourown.org/users/Lxilani/pseuds/Lxilani  
> Mainly for being a good supportive friend and also an inspiration to keep on writing.


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